M3 Mythology and Copyright

            When I presented on fairy tales at Desert Dreams in April, and when I went to Comicon in June, I was surprised by the number of questions asked about the copyright status of myths and fairy tales. So let’s get into it.

            First, I’m not a lawyer, I don’t even play one on TV. So nothing I say here can be taken as absolute gospel. If you want that, hire a lawyer. Better still, go the free option and talk to a local librarian. They love to talk about this stuff, have been fully trained in it, and will not charge you for saying hello to them.

            Aside from that, this is what I can say. Myths and fairy tales are old enough to be considered in the public domain. The stories we’re talking about date back hundreds if not thousands of years, and copyright didn’t exist. (The concept of authorship really didn’t exist, either, but that’s something else.)

            Here are the caveats. Translations are copyrighted to the translators. The translators work with the original text, which is not copyrighted, but their translations constitute their own original work, and is protected by law. The only way you get out of this one is if the translation is older than copyright law (a number of sources out there qualify since they were translated in the 1800s).

            Caveat number two is to look out for companies that have changed the stories and created copyrighted entities. The seven dwarves are part of the original Snow White story. They’re up for grabs. However, Disney named them, and copyrighted those names, so do not touch. The best way to avoid this one is to dig up the original, public domain source. If it appears in that version, you can use it. If it’s not there, someone probably made it up and copyrighted it.

            Again, if you have doubts, go to your local librarians. They’ll be able to help you make sense of the often confusing copyright situation, and help you find good mythology books at the same time.

M3 The Sacred Text Archive

            The Sacred Text Archive is my favorite source for myths online. They’ve been very thorough to dig up and store myths from nearly every culture that’s ever been on the planet. The site can be a little daunting at first, but they’ve got an extensive list to browse through, and their in-site search is pretty thorough. With a little practice, it should be no problem to find any kind of myth you need.

            My only caveat is that it does include a fair bit of articles and commentary. Again, with a  little time it shouldn’t be hard to sort those from the actual stories. They even offer the entire archive on DVD-Rom and flash drive (for a price). Although, I’m thinking about asking for an SD card or purchasable android app offering.

M3 Myth Websites Overview

            Researching good sources of myths online is like researching anything. It takes time and dedication, but I can give some tips. Look for:

M3 The Norse Myths

            For those starting out into Norse myth, I recommend Kevin Crossley-Holland’s The Norse Myths. This is an accessible yet authentic translation of the most well-known of the Norse myths. Before the myths, it explains the basics of the pantheon and the cosmology, which many will find familiar if they watched the Thor movies produced by Marvel.

            Like with the Graves book, the myths are organized chronologically from the creation all the way through to Ragnarok. Also like the Graves book, it doesn’t have every myth, but this collection is fairly broad. It focuses solely on the gods rather than including the hero stories (called Sagas in the Norse).

            This book is an excellent stepping-stone to more complete sources of Norse myth such as the Prose and Poetic Eddas by Snorri Sturrlson. I highly recommend it for anyone with an interest in Norse mythology.

M3 Library: The Holy Bible

            I own more editions of The Holy Bible (including separate editions of The Books of Moses) than any other book of mythology. I know some people get prickly when it comes to thinking of the Bible as mythology, but it is. We’re just talking about these cultural stories. The reason I own so many (5 at last count) is because the translations can vary so widely. No book has been translated as many times as the Bible. Nor has any book had its translation disputed as much as the Bible.

M3 Library: The Greek Myths Complete Edition

            This book by Robert Graves is held by many as the definitive volume of Greek myths. Originally published as two volumes, it has since been consolidated. It covers everything when it comes to Greek myths. All of the major players (and most B-listers) are in this book.

M3 Library: Parallel Myths

            Of all the multi-culture mythology books I’ve looked at over the years, this is the best. I love the organization as well as the myths. The author, J.F. Bierlein, offers up useful information in part 1 before diving fully into the myths, then follows up the myths with some interesting hypotheses ideas for interpreting myths in part 3.

M3 Library: Overview

            It occurred to me that it would be good to give my readers a brief overview of the books I use as sources of myths. In general, I look for books that emphasize the text of the myths over author commentary. I find that author commentary often gets in the way of my own interpretation of the myth. I want a clean slate to look it over and make up my own mind.